This invention relates to a clutch mechanism for use in a fishing reel, and more particularly a clutch mechanism capable of transmitting and interrupting torque between a line winding spool and a handle for rotating the spool and capable of being automatically switched from a torque interrupting state to a torque transmitting state when the handle is rotated in the forward direction, that is in a direction for taking up the line.
The prior art clutch mechanism, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,014,422 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,406,427, was constituted by a main gear rotated by a handle, a pinion meshing with the main gear and rotatably and axially slidably-fitted on a spool shaft so that when the pinion engages a notch of the spool shaft the pinion can rotate together with the spool shaft, a clutch bar for axially sliding the pinion, and a clutch cam connected to an operating lever and disposed between the clutch lever and a supporting plate. Further, the clutch mechanism is shifted to its OFF state where the coupling between the pinion and the spool shaft is released, by manually depressing a push lever and a torsion spring holds and maintains the clutch mechanism at its OFF state. On the other hand, the clutch mechanism is shifted to its ON state from its OFF state by forwardly rotating the handle. The torsion spring is used to hold and maintain the clutch mechanism selectively in its ON and OFF states.
With the above mechanism, however, it becomes necessary to repeatedly depress the push lever, take out the fishing line and rotate the handle so as to adjust the length of the fishing line to be taken out. Thus, the adjusting operation is fairly troublesome and it becomes difficult to desirably and minutely adjust it.
According to this aspect, an improved clutch mechanism has been proposed in Japanese patent provisional publication No. Sho 60-78526 published and laid open for public inspection on May 4, 1985.
In this mechanism, one end of the torsion spring is secured to the inner end of a flipping lever and the position of the one end of the torsion spring is shifted between its normal and flipping positions by manually operating the flipping lever from outside the reel body. When the one end of the torsion spring is positioned at its normal state, the torsion spring biases the clutch mechanism selectively to its ON and OFF state, just as in the above described prior mechanism. On the other hand, when the one end of the torsion spring is shifted to its flipping position, the torsion spring continues to bias the clutch mechanism only to its ON state even when the clutch mechanism is in its OFF state. Accordingly, in the latter condition, the clutch mechanism is shifted to its OFF state only while the push lever continues to be manually depressed, and the clutch mechanism automatically returns to its ON state immediately when the depressing force applied to the push lever is released.
With this mechanism, however, because a holder having two inlets for selectively receiving a boss formed on the inner part of the flipping lever is utilized to hold the flipping lever to its normal or flipping positions, three steps are required to shift the torsion spring between its normal and flipping states. Those are, (1) pushing the flipping lever to release the engagement between the boss and the holder, (2) swinging the flipper lever to face the boss to another inlet of the holder while continuing the pushing, and (3) releasing the pushing force applied to the push lever to insert the boss into another inlet of the holder. Thus, the operation for shifting the torsion spring between its normal and flipping states can not be accomplished by one step. Further, the constructions of the flipping lever and the holder are complicated so that the fabrication and assembling therefor are not easy.